February 2002

Asymtek’s American Flag Demonstration
at APEX Showcased Dispensing Capabilities

Carlsbad, CA — In light of the country’s recent events, Asymtek developed a tradeshow demonstration for APEX that was both patriotic and illustrative of their company’s wide range of dispensing capabilities. PCB Assembly Product Manager Bob Hoffman headed a team that created an American flag board demonstration that illustrated the process flexibility of their dispensing platforms, dispense heads, and dispensing materials. The demo, which was shown live on wide screen monitors in Asymtek’s booth, was very well received at the show in San Diego.

Each step in the business card-size flag demonstration portrayed an Asymtek dispensing capability on their various platforms. The demo began on Asymtek’s new Axiom™ X-1010 system that meets mid-range throughput requirements for inline high-volume, high-accuracy SMT applications. Using a DJ-2100 Dispense Jet® valve, the X-1010 system shot silver epoxy dots in the pattern of the 50 stars. The dots were cured, each becoming a hard bump 0.5mm in diameter and 0.2 mm in height. After jetting another small dot of epoxy on each bump, a pick and place machine was used to place a glass plate on top of the silver dots. The assembly was then cured for one hour, according to the fluid manufacturer’s specifications.

The next step was to create a blue field around the stars by underfilling the area underneath the glass plate with blue epoxy and then dispensing a black dam (1 mm wide) around the circumference of the flag perimeter. Both actions were performed by the new Axiom™ X-1020 dispensing system for semiconductor package and printed circuit board assembly. Configured with a dual-action capability, a DP-3000 Series Linear Pump was used to dispense underfill material. While the underfill flowed, a DV-7000 Heli-Flow™ pump dispensed the black dam. The board was then cured for 30 minutes at 150°F (65° C).

A Century® C-720 batch encapsulation system performed the next step in the demonstration. Equipped with a DP-3000 Large Bore Pump, the area within the black dam was flooded with a white underfill material. The board was then cured again. This "underfill and dam" demonstration was an unusual combination of the two most common encapsulation processes, "dam and fill" and "underfill," both developed to protect the electrical connections of semiconductor devices.

The final step in the flag demonstration was dispensing red stripes of surface mount adhesive on a high-speed, high-accuracy Millennium® M-2010 dispensing system. The dots were dispensed on the fly creating what appeared to be solid lines of material, approaching speeds of over 50,000 dots per hour. The board was cured one last time.

Asymtek supplies award-winning automated fluid dispensing systems to the semiconductor, surface mount, electronics packaging and industrial markets. Together, Asymtek and parent company Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ: NDSN) form one of the world's largest businesses dedicated to dispensing. Their unique partnering of applications engineering and product expertise is a solid testimonial of their commitment to offer total dispensing solutions and local support to customers throughout the world. A complete review of Asymtek's automated fluid dispensing systems may be found on their Web site at http://www.asymtek.com.